BUFFALO - New Buffalo Bills Stadium (72,000)

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Anyone who's ever been to the lakefront in Buffalo in November-March understands why a retractable roof is necessary. The stadium would be VERY exposed to the strong winds and blowing snow off the lake. Also as a convention facility, it needs to offer the full range of options for meetings large and small. An open air facility is cheaper but very limiting.

The big problem is getting this monster financed. This is a New York-scale proposal for a city the size of Tulsa. $1.4 billion is a pretty big nut to cover, can Buffalo marshall the resources for this?

Maybe. And that's a BIG maybe. I read the article and at the end they mentioned that they talked to Mickey Kearns, now I know him personally and if he gets behind it, he might be able to convince the bigger politicians (Cuomo, Higgins) it might have a chance. Mickey is not your typical talking head politician, when he says he's going to do something he tries his best to do it. Cuomo is committed to keeping the team here and committed to spending a lot of money on development here.

[eMKay]

The more I think about this ridiculous proposal, The more it makes sense. The team is negotiating with the county and state on a new lease and renovations to the stadium. Part of that lease is a buyout clause to recuperate some of the money lost If the team moves. But it will only be a percentage of $200 million, any rich owner wanting to move the team will easily pay that off, now if this preposterous stadium somehow gets built, the city, county, and state can demand a much larger buyout clause, making it much more likely that one of the two prospective local ownership groups will be able to buy the team and keep them here.

If they renovate the Ralph, we will just be going through this again in 10 years and will likely lose the team. This boondoggle will be the way to keep them here indefinitely and provide us with a sorely needed convention center.

You may have noticed I keep using words like boondoggle, ridiculous, and preposterous, because it is. 1.4 billion dollars in Buffalo? Sounds crazy right? Well maybe it's not so crazy after all. This is the NFL, the richest sports league on the planet, and it shows no signs of giving up that title. If New York politicians want to keep New York's only NFL team in NY, they're gonna have to put up a large chunk of cash.

I think this has little chance of succeeding, but I hope I'm wrong

[RMB2007]

Link to the live blog:

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-c...city-hall.html

[flashman]

Originally Posted by will101

Won't happen. The NFL is on record against placing franchises in Canada full time. They like having the CFL as something of a feeder league, and putting a team in Toronto would kill the CFL.

HaHaHa! That's funny. The CFL is limping along nicely with it's Toronto franchise already on life support. Just ask any teenager to name one Argonaut football player. The Argonauts are owned by the same man who owns the B.C. Lions, so one quarter of the league is owned by one man. This isn't Weekend At Bernies. Time to stop pretending and propping up the deceased.

The NFL likes money. What they say and what they do is all predicated on money.

Toronto is a ridiculously wealthy city. The amount of tower cranes on that city's downtown skyline must be near 100. Has been that way for several years now with condos and commercial projects racing out of the ground. Now, a new downtown casino project is in the works. If the Bills decided to make their part-time home a permanent one, you could expect a ravenous demand for tickets and suites. The team would fill a 90,000-seat stadium every game and the corporate support would be on a par with any city outside of NY.

At some point, the NFL is going to receive an offer it can't refuse. It would be lovely to see Buffalo retain the Bills. The games at The Ralph are fun. Inside and outside the stadium, game-day atmosphere is terrific. Fans there really care and Canadian fans who cross the border really appreciate what goes on there. Toronto and Buffalo and have a great rivalry in hockey, so having that extend to football would be wonderful.

But western New York's population has been in a long, steady decline and the similarly-sagging corporate culture is less than ideal for what the NFL wants and needs.

Good luck with this project, but I'm highly skeptical it'll get past the drawing board.

[RMB2007]

[desertpunk]

I'd love to see this get built!


HKS

[Pelt]

Man, that particular bowl footprint is becoming very popular.

The Link
Lucas Oil
Ford Field
The new Niners stadium
Farmers Field renders
The preliminary renders of the Vikings new digs
And now possibly this one

Have I missed any?

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by Pelt

Man, that particular bowl footprint is becoming very popular.

The Link
Lucas Oil
Ford Field
The new Niners stadium
Farmers Field renders
The preliminary renders of the Vikings new digs
And now possibly this one

Have I missed any?

Well this is just Lucas oil stadiums bowl inside the proposal, it's not ab official design

[RMB2007]

Someone give 'em the money to make this happen.









PDF files used in the presentation can be found here:

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/20...-presentation/

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by RMB2007

Someone give 'em the money to make this happen.







PDF files used in the presentation can be found here:

http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/20...-presentation/

Well the middle part on the peninsula and across the street from the stadium can't happen as there is currently a large General Mills plant and a marina. But everything on the side of the stadium can happen

[eMKay]

I took some pictures on my way home (I work across the street) Notice the news truck...

North side of the site, formerly a night club and a very large parking lot, currently used for summer concerts




Link to larger panorama
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/w...sal/file-8.jpg

South end, where the actual stadium would be, is currently a park, but only along the water, interior is just brownfields.


Pano


Link to larger pano...
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/w...sal/file-9.jpg

[JJG]

Originally Posted by Darloeye

Looks nice but can't see it happening anytime soon also saying indy made $650million for hosting the superbowl so that would be the same with Buffalo can't see that being the same for som reason. Could it be a way of getting the Bills to LA if the team can't get a stadium built ?

Oh, no way in hell do the Bills move to L.A.....

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by flashman

If the Bills decided to make their part-time home a permanent one, you could expect a ravenous demand for tickets and suites. The team would fill a 90,000-seat stadium every game and the corporate support would be on a par with any city outside of NY.

This is ridiculous, they barely support the Argonauts and can't even sell out Bills games at a 55,000 seat stadium, plus the atmosphere is dead, boring, lifeless. The only NFL fans in Toronto already have season tickets to the Bills and come down for the tailgating and atmosphere that is impossible to reproduce in stodgy corporate Toronto.

[ChesterCopperpot]

I live in Toronto -and there's no way in hell that a team would be supported here

[slipperydog]

Agreed. If the NFL wants to take advantage of the Canadian market, the best way to do it is to help the Bills fund a new state-of-the-art stadium just across the border.

[flashman]

Originally Posted by eMKay

This is ridiculous, they barely support the Argonauts and can't even sell out Bills games at a 55,000 seat stadium, plus the atmosphere is dead, boring, lifeless. The only NFL fans in Toronto already have season tickets to the Bills and come down for the tailgating and atmosphere that is impossible to reproduce in stodgy corporate Toronto.

The Bills deal at the Skydome is an absolute dog's dinner that's been over-priced. The team kinda sucks, too, which doesn't do much to draw a crowd.

That stadium is dreadful for football with seats in the lower bowl set at such a shallow pitch, the first dozen rows can't be used since they can't see the field properly. The rest of this multi-purpose bowl has some awful sightlines.
No wonder the CFL fans don't come out.

No question the atmosphere and tailgating in Buffalo can't be matched in Toronto. But an NFL team permanently located in Toronto would be a runaway success.

And never judge a sports marketplace by looking at inferior situations that existed previously. Before MLS soccer came to Toronto, you might have though Toronto was a dud marketplace for that game. Only a few hundred to a couple of thousand fans came out to watch the minor pro Toronto Lynx games.

Then along comes Toronto FC and they're packing the new BMO Field. Yes, turnstile counts are down this year due to poor play but they'll still sell at least 18,000 season tickets - from 21,500 available.

For those who knew what to look for, the audience for the game was there all along. Same thing applies to the NFL. The audience for it in Toronto is huge.

As I said before, I would wish the Bills to stay where they're truly loved and that Buffalo and Toronto would end up as huge rivals someday.

Anyway, it's a thread about Buffalo's stadium, and I have carried too far afield.

[koolio]

Why would such a project cost $1.2 billion in Buffalo? Is that strictly for the stadium or are they referring to surrounding developments as well?

Either way, I hope this does come to fruition in one capacity or another. I think they can live without a retractable roof as far as football is concerned (they can cover the stands extensively with European stadium type roof) but then they would lose out potential convention space so it will be a trade off.

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by koolio

Why would such a project cost $1.2 billion in Buffalo? Is that strictly for the stadium or are they referring to surrounding developments as well?

Either way, I hope this does come to fruition in one capacity or another. I think they can live without a retractable roof as far as football is concerned (they can cover the stands extensively with European stadium type roof) but then they would lose out potential convention space so it will be a trade off.

It's 1.4 billion, and it's the stadium and infrastructure, there is no way to get 72,000+ people in and out of that site easily. There will have to be a couple lift bridges built (sailboats and freighters need access to that canal) and they are talking about extending the metro rail to the site, which of course needs another lift bridge. Also, that giant eyesore of an elevated highway, it's gotta go.

The plan is to connect the southtowns to downtown with a parkway along Ohio street. A pedestrian and rail lift bridge from the foot of main (near the arena) and in the renders they show 4 other bridges and parks that are in areas that there cannot be bridges and parks. Looks like they just slapped pictures of new buildings wherever. There is still a lot of industry around there, and a lot of boat traffic.

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by flashman

For those who knew what to look for, the audience for the game was there all along. Same thing applies to the NFL. The audience for it in Toronto is huge.

It seems you're in the minority with this opinion, most other Canadians here know that there aren't enough fans to justify a team

[www.sercan.de]

Looks like 72,000 is the new NFL stadium capacity

New Buffalo Bills Stadium (72,000)
Farmers Field (72,000)
New Vikings Stadium (72,000)